I look up at the stars as smoke plumes flat up to the sky. Nia counts them, drawing them out on her notebook. “I can’t read a thing,” she says. “I don’t know what they mean at all.”
“Good. Better that the tides are against all of us than in their favour,” Iris says, wiping down her rifle.
“Do you think they took it? The bait I mean?” I ask, holding a nestled Andreas to my chest. Nia reaches over and touches his felt soft cheek.
“They’d better. They think themselves so clever, don’t they?”
Nia sighs, picking at her fingernails, having set down the notebook. “It’s sad, isn’t it?”
“We had a good run,” Iris says. “Better this way, than mass suicide. Better now, when we still have power. Better now, before they release an angry horde of unneutered wolves on us.” We got that information from an informant. They’re not the only ones with spies. Andreas cooes and I lift him to my eye level.
“Does the strong man need to be burped? Hmm. How do you ask for that?”
“He’s an infant, he’s not going to talk,” Iris says, tossing the rag aside. Nia shoots her a glare and takes Andreas from my arms.
“This is why I’m the better Auntie,” she whispers and it’s Iris’s turn to glare. I stand, wiping down my pants.
“Will you watch him? There’s milk in that bottle in my bag. I have to prepare my supplies.” And, prepare my proposal, my position and my weapon if things go sour and south and we end up retreating and taking this on another day. So much to do and so little time before the main force moves into the hills. I bet they’re coming through that forest already. Perhaps they’re already here. So, so little time.
_______________________________________
Jonah’s POV
We see the plumes of smoke, small, but visible from a distance. Are they so desperate and on the run they’d make a mistake like this? Maybe. We’ve been chasing their main force for weeks, we’ve pinned down supplementary forces, raided an abandoned base and executed as many spies as possible. Still, it’s like playing whack a mole. Kill one, three more pop up.
I shift, shaking out my fur and letting out the howl of war. I can see figures now, hiding in the distance. I can see rifles, I can see glowing magic--abomination magic used against our own kind. Witches and wolves, we’re not that different. It's supposed to be us against the humans. They have to be reminded. We come charging down the hill, feet beating. I have fifteen-thousand wolves running with me. It’s an all out, it’s supposed to and going to crush them, bringing them to heel. I have to howl several times to get the staggered line to stay that way and not clump into a frenzied mob. These men, they have brothers and friends and uncles who they think have been damned to a horrid, lonely life. It turns out, that isn’t true. And I can feel their coursing anger.
The flames grow brighter and I can see the witches, I can see the whites of their eyes, their wide eyes glowing with the flickering fire-light. They stand, they hold hands, they glow with magic. But they don’t flinch, even as we come speeding down. I scent the air. Imani...Imani is not among them. Did they split the force? I can already taste blood on my tongue before I lunge. I reach for a debilitating snap of a girl’s leg, but instead, I’m knocked back at least a dozen yards. They glow brighter and I see the wolves to my side lie breathing heavy, yipping and scratching the ground, their noses turned up. A bright blue barrier glows around them and I howl, clearing a path for myself back toward the forest. I move fast, swift and sprinting up the hill. When I reach it, I shift and wipe sweat from my forehead.
“They’re shielding up. We need the loyal witches to get down these spells. They’re older, wiser, I’m sure they’ll have these little girls down in five minutes.” I look down the rocky hill, scanning my mulling forces, roaming outside the dome of floating and protected witches. “I didn’t expect them to get a shield up so fast. They just got here didn’t they?”
Beta opens his mouth to say something, but he’s cut off by feet barreling through trees. A teenaged boy, a messenger shits into human form and breathes deep, hands on his knees. Then he pops up, dark skin glowing and bright with exertion. “There’s blood shed on the western hill.”
“Bloodshed?” I look down at the shield again. “Are they protecting something important down there? Waiting for reinforcements?”
“I’d have to get a flare to one of the generals, Alpha,” Leon says. I frown and turn to the boy.
“And there, there’s more. It’s...it’s a-”
There’s a large boom from the hills to the East. The shield falls in the same moment and the campfires roar forward. I fall to the ground to avoid the singing flame. When it’s over, I open my eyes to see red smoke floating into the sky from where the witches stood. “They’re not gods! They can be tracked!” I shout into the air, jumping and shifting, bones cracking but not hurting for a second. I rush down the hill, passing and weaving through limping wolves with smoking, singed fur and revealed pink skin. I don’t even want to think about what they look like as people.
It was a trap. It was all a damn trap. They didn’t just get here, they’ve been here for days at least. What we were tailing wasn’t their main force, though it was a huge force of many moving parts. It means they have far more witches than we thought they did. And it means very, very bad news for my plan.
I can hear my sister cackle in my head. ‘You’ve met your equal.’ There’s no fighting in the center. All of it is concentrated to the East hills and that’s where I take the rest of my undamaged force, sending half of them to prepare to do a route and the other half for a roman style flank fighting formation. In between the trees, I can see flashes of magic. The iron salt smell of blood fills the air and I feel heat blaze past my face. I lunge, reaching for an unprotected arm and sinking my teeth into it. A witch and I roll down the rocky slope, as she struggles to get her amulet working through her panic. I remove my teeth from her flesh, reach forward and snap the stone off her neck, tearing off the pedant and letting it go. It tumbles through the undergrowth and she screams, elbowing me in my face and going after it. I shake off and go after her. She’s not going to beat a wolf in a footrace. A shift mid-leap, grabbing onto her arm and throwing her over my shoulder. “Let go! Let go!”
I throw her to another soldier, who catches her and she screams, eyes pulsing not with fear, but with anger. I see something slip into her mouth. It happens so fast, I don’t have time to react. One minute, she screams, the next she’s a fuming stone, the third, she’s limp. Poison.
“Get her a healer before she dies!” I shout, stomping after the soldier. “Get a hundred...get a thousand….get as many healers here as possible! They’re killing themselves!”
I turn, shifting again, climbing on a rock to see the sight. There, sweeping out of the sky is another group of witches, poised to smash directly into our side. My eyes widen. Two traps in one day. Everything...everything we thought we knew about their plan is a lie. I turn, howling for the rest of my men to follow me. We’re being routed, shot down and hunted like game animals, picked off from the sky. A wolf drops beside me, a familiar shade of fur. Someone I knew. I keep running, shames bubbling up in my stomach. My men are dying like flies and there’s nothing…..nothing I can do. We flood down a hill, into open terrain, into what will be a slaughter once I see the line of witches waiting at the bottom, the same ones who made the shield, the ones who I thought disappeared in that red smoke. Shit! I howl again. It’s an attack call, the grittiest attack call I can muster. Take everyone prisoner. I howl again. Stop at nothing to achieve total victory.
There’s a wild scream to my left. A wolf pulls down a girl, shifts on top of her and sinks his fangs into her neck. I wince. Not the best time for that, but it will keep her powerless for the next twelve hours. He leans back, grinning at her and she puts her head up. I almost miss the deadly glare in her eye in the throng of charging wolves. Almost. His head slams into her chest and a twitching smile covers her mouth. She falls too. I curse, shifting and nearly falling on my face for it. I push up from the ground. “Do not mark any of these witches! Restrain yourself or face the lash when you are court martialed!” Nearby wolves turn their heads to me and send howls and yips out in all directions. That poison they’re chewing upon capture, it’ll kill us too. Who’s the bitch that decided this was an okay strategy?
Then I scent her. Sweet, calming, like sitting next to a crackling fire, with those eyes staring at me, and those lips twitching with humor and not hate. Shit. I’m going to have to follow. I’m going to have to follow. I turn to Leon, running close behind and giving secondary commands, sweating because he’s been running messages down and up the lines. I lock eyes with him and nod, before turning, howling to a line of six soldiers. My elites, men and women, who’ve trained with me since I started this entire mess. And we head off toward the hills.